Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Timesdubbed it "the Citizen Kane of awful", while The Telegraph's Robbie Collin wrote of the film: "After watching Peter Farrelly's Movie 43, I was immediately overcome with a sudden rush of emotion: not amusement, anger or even mild irritation, but a profound and faintly tragic sense of pity."

Addressing the comedy's critical reception, producer Farrelly said: "To the critics - Movie 43 is not the end of the world. It's just a $6 million movie where we tried to do something different. Now back off."

He later added: "You always complain that Hollywood never gives you new stuff, and then when you get it, you flip out. Lighten up."

Reports from cinemagoers also suggested that the US and UK versions of Movie 43 are different.

In the UK the film's framing device involves kids trawling the internet to find the mythical 'Movie 43', while the US version sees Dennis Quaid play a mad screenwriter who links each story together.

Movie 43 earned £787,648 from UK cinemas over the weekend, putting it at number seven in the box office rankings.